Palm Sunday drew flower lovers to Crandall’s
By Erik Pekar
This coming Sunday, April 10, is Palm Sunday. While this day is of significance to several major religious denominations, as is Easter Sunday the following week, for many Granville residents Palm Sunday is significant in another way.
For many years, Palm Sunday was the open house at Crandall’s Flowers, the flower shop and greenhouses on the Middle Granville road (County Route 24). This event was a popular one that drew crowds of people from the Granville area. The Crandalls, Jim and Mona, had quite the display of different selections of flowers through the greenhouses.
The event was first held in 1946. The advertisement for the “First Annual Flower Show” beckoned Sentinel readers to go, noting that “everyone is invited to visit us and see our display of Easter flowers,” adding that there was “no obligation [to buy] – Come for the pleasure you will receive.” The business was then known as the Granville Florist; the name wasn’t changed to Crandall’s Flowers until circa 1960.
The event quickly became popular. The 1950 flower show had about 3,000 guests, with cars parked along the Middle Granville road from the Jay Gould farm (now the Kenny Thomas farm) in the north to the Gray Hulett farm (near Slate Valley Lanes) in the south. While initially featuring Easter flowers, by 1950 the variety being displayed had already greatly diversified to include more of the flowers they would sell at times throughout the year.
In later years, the children were catered to by early appearances of the Easter Bunny. The Flower Show was held each year through 1979. This would be the final installment of the famed event, as Crandall’s Flowers was sold that fall to Helmut Meng, who renamed the business as Sonshine Florist. While the change brought an end to a longtime annual Granville tradition, the memories of the event will live on for those who attended.
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Edwards Market, in the Village of Granville, closed on March 19. This business was owned by Joe and Jennifer Thomas and had opened in 2014. During its time in business, it was run by several managers. The last set of managers, Kim Belden and Jerrold Jones, assumed management in March 2021. The West Main Grille had closed in December 2021, opening only for special events. While Edwards was known for good food for much of its time in business, the quality reportedly began to slip and ebb greatly in recent months. The decision to close was no doubt a difficult one for the Thomases. The loss of a business in Granville is unfortunate, especially one on Main Street. Plans for the future are not known, but it is hoped by many that the Thomases are able to find someone who will run the place to the best of its potential, either as a manager or as a new owner.
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Daylight Savings Time, the shifting of time an hour ahead for several months resulting in an “extra hour” of sunlight in the evening instead of the morning, has been liked and loathed for years. The time shift is usually done for a few reasons, one of which is the extra hour of daylight, but is also done to conserve energy and power, as well as increase commerce and business. The recent talk by Congress of moving to year-round Daylight Savings Time, and the discussion being had on that subject, brings to mind how Granville got on DST.
Daylight savings was first put to the voters of the Village of Granville in March 1930. Village residents then rejected the measure. However, it passed the next year, and so Granville began shifting its time an hour ahead.
Granville’s daylight savings time in 1931 started in mid-June and ended in early September – roughly coinciding with the summer vacation of New York schools, partly due to objections from the administrators of the Granville Union Free School District No. 7, who felt it would interfere with the schedules of students from outside the village who weren’t on DST. The same schedule was repeated for 1932.
In 1933, however, several petitions were received by the village in late April, with more than 1,200 total village residents requesting early DST. The village board acquiesced and moved the onset date up to May 6. For 1934, the village board decided in April to observe Daylight Savings to the same schedule utilized by neighboring communities observing the time shift – the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in September.
Daylight savings time returned nationally during World War II as Nationwide War Time; control reverted to the local levels after the war’s end. The New York Legislature enacted DST statewide in the 1950s.
In 1966, the federal Uniform Time Act made Daylight Savings nationwide from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, beginning in 1967. It also superseded any state laws relating to the matter.
Year-round DST was first attempted in the 1970s. Passed during the 1973 oil embargo, the emergency extension was intended to run from the first Sunday in January of 1974 to the last Sunday in April of 1975, after which regular DST for 1975 would have started. The extra hour in the evening during the winter months was cited before it took effect as a benefit. However, when the wintertime DST started in 1974, America was met with morning drives to work and bus rides and walking to schools happening entirely at “night.” There were also several incidents of walking children being hit, due to impaired vision with less light compared to regular time in the previous months. In October of 1974, the emergency extension was amended to change back to standard time from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in February. Considering the lack of public support by early 1974, Congress decided not to continue attempting year-round DST.
Since then, the time of observing Daylight Savings Time has been extended twice. Congress amended the Uniform Time Act in 1986 to move the beginning to the first Sunday in April. In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which also changed Daylight Savings Time by moving the start and end dates to the second Sunday in March and first Sunday in November, where it remains today.
The talk of year-round Daylight Savings Time has appeared from time to time since the 1970s attempt, with the same benefits being cited as reasons for staying on DST year-round, and the same drawbacks observed in 1974 as reasons for continuing the status quo of switching between the times twice yearly. The most objected part of Daylight Savings, however, is the upheaval in “springing forward” and “falling back”: losing an hour of sleep in the spring, and an hour of light in the fall, as well as the drivers’ slight confusion for the week or two after either switch. These switches would not occur if Daylight Savings was observed year-round. Whether Congress will pass year-round DST in the coming years remains to be seen. It could have the same negative reaction as it did in 1974, and it is just as possible that it could be positively received.
Note: Paragraph 4 modified slightly to remove wording jump
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